Israel Rejects Hamas Terms For Exchange Of Prisoners

By GREG MYRE; Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Gaza City for this article.

Published: July 11, 2006

In dueling news conferences, the exiled political leader of the militant group Hamas said Monday that Israel's captured soldier would not be freed without the release of Palestinian prisoners, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel ruled out any negotiations with Hamas.

Despite hints of behind-the-scenes deals that could involve the release of Palestinian prisoners at a later stage, Mr. Olmert forcefully rejected dealing with Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government and is one of the groups that claimed responsibility for seizing the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, on June 25.

''I think that trading prisoners with a bloody terror organization such as Hamas is a major mistake,'' Mr. Olmert said at a news conference in Jerusalem. ''I want it to be very clear: I don't negotiate with Hamas, I did not negotiate with Hamas and I will not negotiate with Hamas.''

Shortly after he spoke, the exiled director of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal, held his own news conference in Damascus, Syria.

''The solution is simple: exchange prisoners,'' Mr. Meshal said. ''There will be no freedom for the Israeli prisoner without an exchange involving Palestinian detainees.''

Mr. Meshal was also critical of the United States and other Western countries for placing so much emphasis on one Israeli soldier when Israel was holding nearly 9,000 Palestinian prisoners.

''The aggression did not start with the imprisonment of the soldier,'' Mr. Meshal said. Speaking of Israel's current operations in Gaza, where it has been carrying out the first incursions since withdrawing almost a year ago, he said, ''Israel is practicing state terrorism and is in violation of international law.''

He said that Corporal Shalit had been seized in a ''clean military operation'' and that Hamas considered him a prisoner of war.

In Gaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had offered to mediate and had sought to see the corporal but had not received a response from the Palestinians.

Israeli airstrikes killed seven Palestinians in four separate attacks on Monday, said Palestinian security officials, medical workers and journalists. Four of the dead were militants, the Palestinians said. Several people were wounded, including an 8-year-old girl, medical workers said.

In one of the attacks, on Monday evening, an Israeli missile killed three unarmed teenagers who were near a site where militants were firing rockets from Beit Hanun in northeast Gaza, Palestinian journalists said. The Israeli military said that it had fired at militants who were launching two rockets there, and that it was checking the Palestinian report on the casualties.

Since Israel began its offensive nearly two weeks ago, about 50 Palestinians have been killed, most of them militants, but also several civilians. One Israeli soldier was killed, but the military concluded that he had been hit by Israeli gunfire.

While there are no signs of a breakthrough, some Israeli officials have suggested that Israel could release some Palestinian prisoners if several things happened first: the release of the Israeli soldier, a halt in the rocket fire from Gaza aimed at Israeli towns, and a renewed and more formal cease-fire.

The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, called Saturday for a mutual cease-fire, which Israel rejected as long as its soldier was held.

Mr. Olmert told his cabinet on Sunday that before Corporal Shalit had been seized, Israel had been prepared to hand over some prisoners to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, who opposes attacks on Israel and seeks a resumption of negotiations.

The soldier's father, Noam Shalit, has spoken out in favor of a deal to resolve the crisis, and opinion polls indicate that a solid majority of Israelis support his position. ''I say again, I think it is clear to everyone that we won't get something for nothing in the Middle East,'' Mr. Shalit told Israel radio.

Israeli leaders say they believe that a tough military response will discourage the Palestinians from seizing soldiers, firing rockets and carrying out other attacks.

Some European countries have criticized Israel's military actions, describing them as disproportionate and imposing too many hardships on civilians. Mr. Olmert replied that the critics' attention should be on the daily Palestinian rocket fire from northern Gaza into southern Israel.

''When was the last time that the European Union condemned this shooting and suggested effective measures to stop it?'' he said. ''At some point Israel had no choice but to take some measures.''

The European Union has regularly called on Palestinian militants not to fire rockets into Israel.

Mr. Olmert said Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year had raised hopes that the strip and the surrounding region of southern Israel would be calm. He acknowledged that the recent Israeli military actions had made life difficult for impoverished Gazans, but blamed the armed Palestinian factions.

''The people of Gaza deserve to have a different quality of life, and what we wanted was a quiet and peaceful border,'' Mr. Olmert said. ''But there hasn't been a day of rest for the people inside Israel.''

The Gaza crisis has put in abeyance Mr. Olmert's main political initiative, his ''realignment'' plan, which calls for removing some Jewish settlements from the West Bank.

''The concept of realignment is basically a concept of gradually separating the Israelis and the Palestinians,'' he said. ''We want to separate in a friendly manner and live alongside each other.''

Photo: Bedouin women in Gaza, one holding a white flag to signal that they are unarmed, riding a cart to Dahaniya to take shelter from the fighting. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)